They’ve gone Round, Down and Up, and now, for their fourth season,Ewan McGregorand Charley Boorman are attempting to ride the Long Way Home. In 2020, the long-running blokes-on-bikes travel series was revived by Apple after a 15-year gap, and it set its stars the task of travelling from the southernmost tip of South America to Los Angeles on electric motorbikes. Not all fans of the previous seasons were enamoured with it, not least because it lacked the everyman appeal of their earlier runs. Having a big team at Harley-Davidson design and custom-build vehicles for the job, and getting a company to install charging points along the route for them, wasn’t quite the same as two old mates jumping on their bikes and camping wherever the mood dictated.
It makes sense, then, for Long Way Home to take it back to basics. It certainly seems as if a concerted effort has been made for McGregor and Boorman to be more relatable. We see more of them with their families and children, and it appears to be a more intimate operation. Instead of the fancy central London office and massive logistics team, there’s a big map pinned to the wall of McGregor’s garage, a small gathering of the original crew, and that should do it. Or at least, it’s made to look that way.
The plan this time is for the pair to set off from their homes in the UK – McGregor’s is in Perthshire, and Boorman’s in Suffolk – and ride vintage motorbikes on a circular route that visits “17 of our closest neighbours”, taking them all the way up to the Arctic Circle, and back via the Baltic states and western Europe. It’s about 10,000 miles, should take them two months, affords them the comfort of setting off in June, rather than in winter, and seems a little more gentle than their previous efforts. After the horrific motorbike accidents that Boorman has had, and the extensive rehabilitation that followed, who can blame them? “He rides more carefully now, especially at his age,” says Olly, his wife.
Unsurprisingly, there is a quieter, steadier pace to this new adventure, and when it does finally hit the road, it turns out to be a smooth and largely agreeable ride. The first episode sets up the idea for where they will go, and follows the two men as they prepare to set off. “We’re going to follow our noses and see what we find on the open road,” says McGregor.
It is not a zippy opener. It meanders, delaying the departure, and gives a lot of screen time to an attempt to locate a mobile phone that McGregor’s toddler son has dropped behind a bench. But the idea of doing the trip on old and potentially more rickety bikes puts a few grains of sand in the petrol tank. McGregor opts for a 1974 Moto Guzzi Eldorado police bike, complete with siren, while Boorman (eventually) goes for a BMW R75/5, though his injuries mean he has to choose with more care. Kickstarting, for example, is not as easy as it once was. “My legs are fucked,” he says.
When they get on the open road, in episode two, it kicks into gear. They set off from McGregor’s house accompanied by a marching band. “I had to run half-naked over this bridge in Trainspotting 2,” he notes, as they make their way down to Newcastle to catch a ferry to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, they eat herring, buy cheese and look at tulips. They ride north and watch somefierljeppen, or far-leaping, a traditional sport in which people grab a pole and propel themselves over a body of water. Neither seems keen to have a go.
As is often the way with travel shows, and touring in general, the pre-planned set-ups are less interesting than the spontaneous events. The pair head off to Germany, to the home town of Boorman’s late mother, and meet up with members of his family there. But on the way, they encounter another marching band, this time to celebrate a local gun club. The gun club members shoot, they socialise, and by the looks of it, they celebrate life with gusto. See also a Danish bar they visit, whose best customers are of the equine variety.
Long Way Home could be a bit more concise. Ten episodes is a lot, and while those early countries are beautiful, the landscape lacks the drama of previous trips, at least until they get to Norway. It may not entertain viewers less invested in McGregor and Boorman’s friendship, or vintage motorcycles, or relentless rain. But the footage of them riding eventually becomes mesmerising, in a gentle, slow-TV kind of way, and while it is steady, it is also perfectly pleasant.
Long Way Home is on Apple TV+ now.